Pinarayi Vijayan
The litigation began when political activist K M Shajahan approached the HC challenging the state govt’s decision to constitute a special team to conduct a preliminary inquiry based on the ED’s recommendation to the state police chief to register the vigilance case. As they were not parties to the original petition, they sought leave to challenge the order, contending that the single bench had passed it without hearing them. The division bench dismissed their leave applications and appeals, holding that an accused public servant has no right to be heard before an FIR is registered. They then approached the Supreme Court with special leave petitions, following which the apex court set aside the division bench’s order.
The apex court, in its order, had also stayed the vigilance probe into the allegations for 10 days. The registry is expected to post the appeals before a different division bench. Kochi : The high court is likely to hear on Saturday, the appeals filed by former CM Pinarayi Vijayan and his relatives challenging a single bench order directing the registration of a vigilance case against them on the ED’s recommendation in connection with the alleged CMRL-Exalogic pay-off case. The Supreme Court had on Wednesday restored the appeals to the HC for fresh consideration after setting aside an earlier division bench order upholding the single bench directive. On Thursday, the appellants placed the Supreme Court order before the HC registry.